Developing more air services from Ireland to global destinations and bringing more tourists from overseas are two of the key tourism policies set out today in the Government’s 2013 Action Plan for Jobs, Minister for Transport, Tourism & Sport Leo Varadkar said.
"Tourism has been a bedrock of this Government’s economic policy since the election, including important measures like the 9% VAT rate, the cut in employers’ PRSI and the fuel rebate for coach operators. The Action Plan for Jobs enhances this Department’s strong focus on pro-tourism and pro-job policies," Minister Varadkar said.
Initiatives from the Department of Transport, Tourism & Sport are as follows:
Supporting initiatives that aim to improve air access to West Coast USA and other locations of high strategic importance for tourism (e.g. China, India);
Ensuring the new aviation policy to be developed during 2013 delivers competitive international access in terms of locations served, frequency of service and cost;
Developing new tourism products/activities where Ireland can gain comparative advantage (e.g. in food, culture, activity breaks, events and festivals), including supporting major sports events and conferences for Ireland;
Supporting the development of an international aviation services centre (IASC) in Shannon;
Using the Tourism Marketing Fund to support international marketing and advertising programmes, focusing on the four core markets (GB, US, Germany and France);
Maintaining the offer to abolish the remaining Air Travel Tax of €3 subject to acceptable commitments from the carriers to additional inbound flights;
Building on the work of the industry-led Tourism Recovery Taskforce, maximising the attractiveness of Ireland's overseas tourism offering, particularly by refining our communications, promotion and product with a view to enhancing our competitiveness to British holidaymakers and leisure travellers;
Reviewing public transport regulation with a view to reform that will reduce costs via increased competition;
Completing the review of ports policy and ensuring that it incentivises timely investment in port facilities to meet future enterprise needs and promotes competition;
Targeting capital investment in public tourism product and infrastructure under the capital budget of €19 million available to Fáilte Ireland in 2013;
Delivering 'The Gathering Ireland 2013' supported by the Tourism Agencies with a target of attracting 325,000 additional visitors and €170 million in additional revenue;
Working with tourism businesses, particularly SMEs, to improve their e-capacity to transact and sell, focusing on the source markets with the best prospects;
Developing a land transport (road and rail) strategic investment framework to facilitate easy access to markets and the mobility of the workforce;
Prioritising the delivery of an IT based road management and utility licencing system to standardise approach for utilities, including Irish Water, to improve efficiency.